Roof ventilator



Jan. 21, 1941. F. J. KREUTZER ROOF YENTILATOR Filed March 4, 1938 s sheets-sheet 1 IN VEN TOR. fiesom/cx J Kplsu r202 BY ATTORNEY Jan. .21., 1941- F. J. KREUTZER ROOF VENTILA'IOR Filed larch 4, 1938 Q 5 Shoots-Sheet 2 IN VEN TOR. fPEDER/CK JKPEU TZER BY ATTORNEYS.

Patented Jan. 21, 1941 PATENT OFFICE ROOF VENTILATOR Frederick J. Kreutzer, Fort Atkinson, Wis., as-

signor to James Manufacturing Company, Fort Atkinson, Wis.

Application May 4, 1938, Serial No. 205,900

1 Claim.

The present invention relates to roof ventilators more commonly used on farm buildings and has for one of its objects to provide a ventilator which is efiicient, neat in appearance, easily and cheaply manufactured, shipped and erected.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide a ventilator which may be made throughout its length rectangular in horizontal cross section whereby the ventilator may comprise four each of similar parts only and four only of each group, these parts being practically fiat whereby they may be fabricated at the factory and nested in relatively small crates for shipment and whereby they may be easily assembled and easily fitted to roofs of various shapes.

Conventional ventilators of the class have been made circular in cross section for the major part of their length. This construction requires that they must be assembled at the factory; thus requiring excessive room for storage and for shipment. They must be inclosed in very large crates thus adding to the freight charges and cost of handling.

Conventional ventilators of the class cannot be stored in any quantity at the factory. They cannot be conveniently stored at the dealers place of business and they cannot easily be placed under cover at the final purchasers place. They are difiicult to erect on the roof because of their bulk and especially difficult to fit to the roof.

In my device the various parts may be made up and shipped as such, thus when fitting the ventilator to a roof it is a simple matter to equally trim pairs of base or pedestal members to suit the shape of the roof.

Generally stated, it may be said that I provide a novel design and a novel process for manufacturing, crating, shipping and erecting.

To these and other useful ends my invention consists of parts, combinations of parts or their equivalentsand mode of manufacturing, crating and erecting, as described and claimed and shown in the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of my improved ventilator after being assembled.

Fig. 2 is a top view of the ventilator shown in Figure 1.

Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view of the ventilator shown in Figures 1 and 2 taken on line 33 of Figure 2.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of my improved ventilator the base being made chimney style and being considerable longer in one direction than the other in cross section and illustrating the ventilator positioned on a peaked roof.

Fig. 5 is a transverse sectional view of the ventilator shown in Figure 4 and taken on line 5--5 of Figure 4.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a ventilator similar to that shown in Figure 4 except that the base portion tapers outwardly toward the bottom, the ventilator being shown as secured to a peak roof longitudinally,

Fig. 7 illustrates a modification.

Fig. 8 illustrates another modification.

Fig. 9 is a fractional perspective View of a modification.

Fig. 10 is a transverse sectional view taken on line lil-l0 of Figure 1 illustrating my preferred means for securing the base plates together.

Fig. 11 illustrates my preferred form of securing the skirt portions of the ventilator together.

Fig. .12 illustrates a still further form of corner joint used, this joint being particularly suitable for the pyramidal hood or roof of the ventilator as illustrated in Figure 9.

Fig. 13 is a fractional perspective assembly of the skirt of my device.

Fig. 14 illustrates a modification of the storm band shown in Figure 1 and taken on line l4-I4 of Figure 9.

Fig. 15 is a perspective view of the corner brackets used for securing the roof to the medial member of the ventilator and for securing the storm band to the roof and skirt of the ventilator.

Figures 16, 17, 18 and 19 are diagrammatic drawings of the four difierent major parts used for constructing my improved ventilator.

As thus illustrated in Figures 1, 3, 10, 16, 17, 18 and 19 the base or pedestal members of the ventilator are designated by reference characters Hi. It will be noted that these members are identical. One edge is formed as at ll the other edge being formed as at !2 into a reverse loop or fold which fits into loop I l as illustrated in Figure 10. After this joint has been made as illustrated the pieces are bolted together by a suitable number of bolts l3.

Since the parts are fiat and these joints. are made so they may be easily slipped together it will be seen that the assembly of the pedestal of the ventilator will be a simple matter but that after the bolts are made taut the joint will be made strong and water-proof.

I provide medial skirt members I5, each being shaped as illustrated in Figures 3 and 13 and the joint between each of the. four members being made as illustrated in Figure 11. The bottom edge of these members is flared downwardly and outwardly as at l6 and being secured to members ID by means of a suitable number of bolts I'I. Contact between members l5 and I is preferably made a short distance below the upper end of members l0 thus to form a water catching trough for any moisture or water that may be blown to the inner surface of members I5.

I provide a suitable number of drain openings l8. Thus it will be seen that any water that may find its way in rear of I will be drained to the outer surface of the pedestal. The position of member [5 is clearly illustrated in Figure 3 and has a vertically turned flange IS on its upper edge.

I provide a pyramidal hood or roof for my ventilator comprising four flat pieces 25 having down-turned flanges 26 on their low-er edges, these flanges are positioned preferably on the same vertical plane as flanges l9 and spaced from these flanges a suitable distance to thereby provide an air outlet therebetween equal to or greater than the area of the top of the pedestal.

Members 19 and 26 are secured together in spaced relation by means of brackets 21. These brackets are identical two being used for each corner of the ventilator and preferably spot welded together as illustrated in Figure 15, thus forming right angle seats 2828 for engaging flanges l9 and 26 and the storm band as will hereinafter appear by means of bolts 29. Thus it will be seen that each pair of brackets forms a very rigid support for'the roof members 25 and for the storm band 35.

Members 25 are preferably supplied with a small cap 30 having a screw-threaded opening 3! which may be plugged or used for securing ornaments and the like to the ventilator.

I provide storm bands 35 each of the four being identical except in the design shown in Figures 4, 5 and 6. These storm bands may be secured together at their ends in any suitable manner, either as illustrated in Figures 11 and 12 or otherwise. These storm bands have at their upper edges inturned stiffening flanges 36 and on their lower edges inturned stiffening flanges 31.

These flanges provide suitable strength for the members and desirable wind deflectors, flange 36 being useful in that it will divert the wind upwardly and thus, to some extent, assist in permitting the escape of air from the ventilator. Flange 3! acts to divert the wind downwardly so as to counteract the action of the pedestal and prevent an undesirable upward rush of air between members 35 and the outlet to the ventilator.

By observing Figures 1, 2 and 3 it will be noted that members 35 extend slightly inward toward the top. This not only adds to the appearance of the ventilator but will somewhat assist in diverting the air upwardly and in the operation of the ventilator.

It will be noted that my improved ventilator as illustrated in Figures 1, 2 and 3 consists of four members It]; four members l5; four members 25 and four members 35. The complete assembly is held together by four pairs of brackets 21 and suitable bolts thus the complete ventilator may be manufactured and stored in a small space or crated in a manner which will occupy a small space in the warehouse and that the dealer will be able to store a number of these ventilators within a reasonably small space in his warehouse and that the final purchaser may easily transport a number of these ventilators to his home and then assemble them either on the ground or on the roof after the base pieces have been cut to fit the roof.

In Figure 9 I illustrate a ventilator which is like the ventilator illustrated in Figure 1 except that the storm bands are differently formed, a cross section being shown in Figure 14, the base portion being designated by numeral 40 having an inwardly turned flange 4| at its bottom and a formed channel 42 at its top. Member 42 adds largely to the stifi'ness of these members plus a decorative quality to the appearance of the ventilator as illustrated. The other parts of the ventilator shown in Figure 9 are similar to the parts illustrated in Figures 1, 2 and 3.

Referring again to brackets 27. It will be noted that these brackets are of a suflicient length whereby an air outlet space is provided between member 35 and members 26 which has a considerable greater area than the space between flanges 26 and I9. Thus I have provided a ventilator with a pleasing appearance and wherein the air will not be restricted in its passage from the building to the exterior and wherein the shape and position of the parts will prevent back-draft in the ventilator or ingress of water to the ventilator.

Referring now to Figures 4, 5 and 6. One of the advantages of my structure is that many of the parts are applicable to ventilators of different sizes. For example, a ventilator as illustrated in Figure 6 may be made from parts with which to construct a square ventilator as illustrated in Figures 1, 2 and 3 and that the end members in Figure 6 may be made from parts used on a small square ventilator and the side members with which to construct a ventilator as in Figure 6 may form members used for constructing a large square ventilator. These re marks may be applied to Figures 4 and 5 in that many of the parts of these ventilators may be used in Ventilators of different sizes and shapes. The skirt and storm bands are used on various shapes and sizes.

It will be noted that the end roof members illustrated in Figures 4 and 6 may even be used to form a pyramidal roof as in Figures 1, 2 and 3. Clearly all of the members illustrated in Figures 4, 5 and 6 may be used with which to construct a square ventilator. I

It will be seen that my device is novel in that the individual parts are practically flat, easily fabricated, stored and packed in crates, that unlike other ventilators enough of these flat parts may be packed in a single crate with which to assemble a number of ventilators; that it is far less expensive to manufacture the individual parts: store them in bins or in crates and ship them in any number per crate to the dealers or the ultimate user and because of the simplicity of the construction it will require but a few minutes to assemble a ventilator and that the ventilator crate may, when necessary, be taken to the roof, unpacked and then the ventilator easily and quickly assembled on the roof. In fact, my ventilator presents the last step in the development of ventilators of the class.

One of the advantages of my device is that it may be made rectangular in cross section in any size so as to accommodate two or more inlet ducts (see Figure 5).

In Figures '7 and 8 I illustrate modified forms of corner fastenings the corner pieces 50 and 5| being used to secure the members together or the major members may be shaped at their edges so the ventilator will have corners similar to those illustrated in Figures 7 and 8 and still be nested together and crated as in the other designs.

Having thus shown and described my invention, I claim:

A ventilator of the class described, comprising a rectangular in horizontal section pedestal which is considerably larger at its bottom than top, said pedestal comprising four trapezoidal members detachably secured together at their angled edges, an upwardly and outwardly extending relatively short skirt comprising four substantially trapezoidal members, the parallel edges of said skirt members being arranged horizontally with their short bottom edges detachably secured to the adjacent pedestal member and near the top thereof, a rectangular in horizontal section pyramid shaped roof comprising four triangularly shaped members detachably secured together, the lower edges of said roof members being spaced from the adjacent top edges of said skirt members and being on substantially the same vertical plane, outwardly extending brackets rem-ovably secured to the adjacent corners of said roof and skirt members, a storm band formed by four substantially longitudinally straight members having their ends detachably secured to the outer edges of said brackets.

FREDERICK J. KREUTZER. 

